Olympic Adversity, Triumph will help the New York Liberty

After putting the Land Down Under back on top, Sandy Brondello hopes to do the same for the New York Liberty.

Brondello is one of several New Yorkers who came home from Paris with some new hardware to declare, serving as head coach for Australia’s bronze medal winning national women’s team. She and fellow medalists Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart, representing the gold-bearing Americans with team coach Terri Acosta, reunited with their fellow seafoam connoisseurs for a short jaunt that ends Saturday in Las Vegas (16: 00 ET, CBS).

“I think they’re very proud of what they accomplished in Paris, and that’s exciting,” Brondello said before the first game back, a 103-68 win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday. “But right now we’re focused and locked in on what we want to do with New York Liberty. We’ve had a really good first part of the season but we want to make sure we finish strong and continue to improve.”

With bronze firmly out of her peripheral vision, Brondello is in a brilliant position to use her Olympic experience as the ultimate weapon in their vengeful quest for the title.

Like the Liberty, the Opals were a talented group coming off a high-profile disappointment, namely failing to get out of group play at the Tokyo Olympics three years earlier. Eighth place was Australia’s worst in Olympic women’s basketball since its debut at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

Having made their podium aspirations quite clear heading into Paris, the Opals endured setbacks both within and beyond their control: former Liberty star Bec Allen was lost to injury late on he group game in Paris started with a shock loss to a Nigerian team.

But the similarities between Seafoam and Opal ran deeper: Brondello has long been forced to come to terms with the fact that she often starts New York seasons without a full contingent due to international duties. Recent seafoam efforts have been organized with Stewart, Nyara Sabally, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Courtney Vandersloot all missing significant time (Laney-Hamilton remains out with a knee injury). However, New York continues to pace the W and can become the first playoff team since 2024 with a win over Las Vegas…the team that beat them in the championship series last season.

“We faced adversity. All you can do is use control. What can you control? What’s in front of you? Brondello said of the Australian run. “You have to keep the faith and believe we have enough to overcome anything. and you just have to trust the process. I think that’s important.”

“(In) New York, we overcame that. I thought we showed great adversity until halftime,” she continued. “We had Stewie for a few games. We had Sloot for a few games. We had Betnijah (sent out), Nyara was shut out most of the time. And I thought we continued to play really good basketball. “

Such similar belief paved the way to four straight Australian victories, including a group-closing thriller over host nation France. The road to gold was closed by Ionescu, Stewart and the Americans, but the final victory over the Belgian Cats gave Australia its first women’s basketball medal since the London 2012 Games. It was Brondello’s fourth Olympic ring, having worn two silver and one bronze. as a player.

Brondello also has a WNBA ring to her name, prevailing in her debut season as the head of the Phoenix Mercury in 2014. But she’s still looking to end another drought, exorcise some demons from the last major competition and rebuild a program sterling to her former glory.

Studying abroad could do the trick.

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